Media reports – March 1, 2024
At least 112 Palestinians killed as Israeli forces target Gaza food aid queue
At least 112 Palestinians were killed and 760 injured trying to get desperately needed aid in Gaza on Thursday.
Crowds descended on a convoy of lorries on the coastal road south-west of Gaza City, in the presence of Israeli tanks.
Giving the figures of 112 dead and 760 injured, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry accused Israel of a "massacre".
Hundreds of Palestinians were waiting to receive aid near Dowar al-Nablusi, south of Gaza City when they came under Israeli fire, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported citing eyewitnesses.
The dead and wounded have been taken to al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.
The head of the nurses' department at al-Shifa Hospital Jadallah al-Shafei said the "situation cannot be described in words," while referring to the aftermath of the attack.
“It is reminiscent of the dark scenes from the Baptist Hospital four months ago where 500 people were killed in one Israeli air strike," he told Doha-based Al Jazeera.
"The hospital has been flooded with dozens of dead bodies and hundreds of injured since the early hours of the morning," he said.
"The majority of the victims suffered gunshot wounds and shrapnel in the head and upper parts of their bodies. They were hit by direct artillery shelling, drone missiles and gunshots," he added.
"We are out of operating theatres, let alone medical staff. We ran out of medical supplies and fuel to run the hospital. We hope we will be able to provide life-saving assistance to those wounded."
"All of them are in critical condition, lying on the floor. We stand helpless amid this shortage of supplies and staff," said al-Shafei.
More than 30,000 Palestinians have since been killed and over 70,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Mass shooting of aid seekers condemned globally
Palestinian leaders and countries around the world have condemned Israel’s targeting of unarmed Palestinians collecting aid in Gaza, in an attack that has killed more than 100 people, Radio Habana Cuba reported Friday.
The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said an “ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army” had taken place, following reports on Thursday that Israeli forces opened fire on people receiving aid southwest of Gaza City.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 112 people were killed and more than 750 wounded, and called on the international community to “urgently intervene” to forge a ceasefire as “the only way to protect civilians”.
“The killing of this large number of innocent civilian victims who risked their livelihood is an integral part of the genocidal war committed by the occupation government against our people,” Abbas’s office was quoted by the Wafa news agency as saying. “Israeli occupation authorities bear full responsibility and will be held accountable before international courts.”
Palestinian group Hamas called the attack “a heinous massacre added to the long series of massacres committed by the criminal Zionist entity against our Palestinian people”.
In a statement, the group, which is fighting Israel in Gaza, said the deadly attack on aid-seekers was “unprecedented in the history of war crimes” and was part of Israel’s “war of starvation” against Palestinians in the enclave.
It called on the United Nations Security Council and Arab states to take decisions obligating Israel to stop its mass killings, ethnic cleansing, genocide and violations of international law in Gaza.
Hamas also said it holds Israel and the United States administration under President Joe Biden responsible for the escalation of the war.
“We mourn the loss of innocent life and recognize the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where innocent Palestinians are just trying to feed their families,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.
U.S. President Joe Biden later said that Washington was checking “two competing versions of what happened,” before adding that the killings would make negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza more difficult.
The United Nations’ aid chief Martin Griffiths said he was appalled at the “reported killing and injury of hundreds of people.” “Even after close to five months of brutal hostilities, Gaza still has the ability to shock us,” Griffiths said. “Life is draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed.”
Egypt, which neighbors Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, meanwhile condemned the attack. “We condemn the inhumane Israeli targeting of … unarmed Palestinian civilians in the Nabulsi roundabout in the northern Gaza,” Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “We consider targeting peaceful citizens rushing to pick up their share of aid a shameful crime and a flagrant violation of international law.”
Jordan’s foreign ministry also released a statement, saying, “We condemn the Israeli occupation forces’ brutal targeting of the gathering of Palestinians who were waiting for aid on the Nabulsi roundabout near Al-Rashid Street in Gaza.”
Saudi Arabia also joined in the condemnation. A foreign ministry statement said Riyadh rejected “violations of international humanitarian law from any side and under any circumstance”, and called for the international community to compel Israel to open secure humanitarian corridors into Gaza.
For her part, the Belgian deputy prime minister, Petra De Sutter, said she was “horrified by the news of today’s massacre.” “Murdering people queueing for essential humanitarian aid?” De Sutter wrote in a social media post. “This is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and fully goes against the [International Court of Justice’s] provisional measures.”
Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, called the attack another “horrible crime” committed by Israel. “These were civilians who are starving because Israel has been depriving them from food for months and does not allow any supplies to them for more than a month now,” he told Al Jazeera from Moscow.
“And then they try to justify it by saying that Palestinians are responsible for being killed by the same Israeli soldiers? It’s unbelievable.”
Barghouti also decried “the silence” of Western countries and blamed their governments for being “complicit with these crimes and allow them to happen.” “This should stop immediately,” he said. “It cannot stop without an immediate, permanent, complete and total ceasefire.”
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